Sunday, December 11, 2011

The Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and
International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) was signed by the Government
of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines
on March 16, 1998. It was a landmark agreement unique in the history of
civil wars worldwide. But 13 years hence, its implementation has
barely passed through the first stage and the peace talks continue to
flounder.
By RAYMUND B. VILLANUEVAKodao Productions

Bulatlat.com
MANILA — Lorena “Aya” Santos remembers one of the last times she
talked to her Tatay (father). She told him about her budding
relationship with the man she eventually married. She recalls how Leo
Velasco, her father and reportedly a Communist Party of the Philippines
central committee member, smiled and told her he understood.

On February 19, 2007, Velasco was abducted in Cagayan de Oro City,
allegedly a victim of enforced disappearance. In November of the same
year Aya’s mother, Elizabeth Principe, was herself abducted in Cubao,
Quezon City. Principe was alleged to be a top communist in Cagayan
Valley.

While leading the campaign for the surfacing of Velasco, Aya has
since become the spokesperson of Desaperacidos, the nationwide alliance
of families of the disappeared. While happy that her Nanay was released
in July 2009 and participated in the February 2011 Government of the
Philippines (GPH)-National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP)
formal peace talks in Oslo, Norway, she is still looking for her father..... MORE

12/11/2011
To, where else do you think
would be the best venue to lash out at the judiciary and the Supreme
Court (SC)? President Noynoy Aquino thought it well to do so at the
First National Criminal Justice Summit last Monday. Great idea! At least
the points he wanted to get across went right to the faces of the
practitioners and dispensers of justice themselves. It was quick, no
pretensions, no diplomatic assuages, no sugar-coating, but
straightforward, direct to the point informal critique on what is going
on the state of the dispensation of justice in this country, including
loopholes on judicial appointments. Of course, nothing said in the
speech was sub-judice. It’s just all about propriety and rough edges in
the rule of law and an impending constitutional crisis, as alarmists
love to augur.

While politico-legal minds are alternating in
lashing out on the “disrespectful” and “unpresidential” manners of P-Noy
in that venue and occasion, using as rationalization “constitutional
courtesy to the equal branches of government,” still these legal
eggheads should realize that the “equality and independence among the
three branches of government” shouldn’t be understood as “territorial”
autonomy or a sort of exclusivity clause. Rather, such constitutional
arrangement is based on the democratic principles of “checks and
balances.”.... MORE

Ron Paul stopped in Ames, Iowa on the campaign trail on Thursday, and
used some harsh words to explain President George W Bush’s reaction to
the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Specifically, the Texas congressman said that the former president
was pretty happy about the events. After all, said Paul, the attacks
served as pretext to finally put American troops overseas in what
instantly became a justifiable reason for war.

“Think of what happened after 9/11,” Paul told a crowd of around 1,000 in Ames this week. “The
minute before there was any assessment, there was glee in the
administration because now we can invade Iraq, and so the war drums
beat.”.... MORE

Vicky Bell wasn’t surprised that fire trucks cruised into her
neighborhood after her home went up in flames — after all, she did dial
9-1-1. What did shock the Tennessean woman was that the emergency crew
never came to her aid.

­Instead, says Bell, they parked their engines down the street and watched her home burn to the ground.

Bell
and her boyfriend live in a rural town just outside of the small city
of South Fulton, TN — so rural, in fact, that residents in her
neighborhood rely on the South Fulton trucks to battle blazes for them.
Even though they are fully equipped to do so, however, the South Fulton
Fire Department doesn’t act unless residents from adjacent towns pay a
$75 annual subscription for protection..... MORESource: RT.com

Protests are a good sign for Russia's political life, while American
criticism of Russian parliamentary election – though outwardly
reasonable – could have a more sinister side, political science
professor Gerhard Mangott told RT.

Discontent with parliamentary election results caused Moscow's
largest protest in years. The rally went peacefully, in contrast to the
spontaneous and unsanctioned rallies on poll day – which followed
Washington's statement that the election was neither free nor fair.

Gerhard
Mangott, Professor of Political Science at Innsbruck University, said
that while Saturday’s rally is an encouraging example of democracy at
work, it lacks the political substance necessary to form a political
agenda alternative to that of the ruling government..... MORE

Oplan Bayanihan sows terror in Western Samar
“I would tell them [soldiers] ‘We are not armed. This is not a war.
This is just a rally.’ They would say, ‘Legal and underground, you’re
the same. You are all NPA [New People’s Army],’” said human rights
worker Ma. Josephine Dy
By RONALYN V. OLEABulatlat.com

CALBAYOG CITY, Western Samar – Human rights worker Ma. Josephine Dy, 33, is used to being tailed by military agents.

Twice a week, she would see fully armed men roaming around their
house in bgy. Matobato, Calbayog City. The men who belong to the 20th
Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA) have set up a
detachment 50 meters away from the back of their house.

In March this year, the soldiers from the same unit held a
circumcision program at the village’s basketball court. The soldiers
warned the residents not to support the communists. “They added that
there are communists right here in our community,” Dy told Bulatlat.com
in an interview.

Dy said that elsewhere in Calbayog City and other towns in Western
Samar, civil-military operations of the Philippine Army under Oplan
Bayanihan are coupled with intelligence work and propaganda against what
the military considers as leftist organizations.

During rallies in Calbayog City, such as the peasant rally held on
October 21 and the public Congressional hearing on Genuine Agrarian
Reform Bill (Garb) last month, Dy said heavily armed soldiers guarded
the protesters.
“I would tell them ‘We are not armed. This is not a war. This is just
a rally.’ They would say, ‘Legal and underground, you’re the same. You
are all NPA [New People’s Army],’” Dy said.

In both instances, soldiers took photographs of Dy. Her colleagues confiscated the cameras from the soldiers.

Dy said soldiers also held public meetings in other villages in
Calbayog City. “The soldiers would malign people’s organizations as
communist fronts,” she said..... MORE

12/11/2011
In these interesting as well
as disturbing times, it could be in order for the Filipinos in
particular, to know or recall, to remember or observe the following
objective realities about the nature and implications of justice:
Justice is for everyone or for nobody at all. Perfect! Justice knows no
party. Great! Justice is the only response to injustice. Right!
Selective justice is injustice, in the last analysis. Correct!

Justice,
however, does not include cruelty. Even justice accepts compassion.
Justice neither promotes ridicule. Even justice respects human dignity.
Justice, too, bows to human rights such as those to life and liberty.

Justice
is geared for the finding of facts — not for the satisfaction of
personal vindictiveness. Justice is ordered for the quest for peace —
not for the demonstration of personal pride..... MORE

The Children’s Rehabilitation Center (CRC) has documented one case of
a child’s death due to indiscriminate firing, 12 cases of frustrated
killings, eight cases of illegal arrest and detention, five cases of
torture, one case of abduction and numerous cases of attacks on schools.
By RONALYN V. OLEA and ANNE MARXZE D. UMILBulatlat.com

MANILA – Precious (not her real name), 12, lost both her father and
brother in an instant. On February 27, at around 12 noon, suspected
elements of the 39th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA)
fired at Rudy Dejos, 50 and his son Rudyric, 26 in Sta. Cruz, Davao del
Sur. The bodies of the two were found later bearing gunshot and stab
wounds, their nails and fingers crushed.

“They accused my father and brother of being members of the New
People’s Army. It is not true. My father was only a farmer and my
brother helped my father in the farm,” Precious said during an activity
organized by children’s rights advocates, Dec. 4 in Quezon City.

Precious said life has become even more difficult without her father
and brother. Her mother has to feed her and her three other siblings all
by herself.

Precious’s story is one of the many violations against the rights of
children under the Aquino administration’s Oplan Bayanihan. The
Children’s Rehabilitation Center (CRC) has documented one case of a
child’s death due to indiscriminate firing, 12 cases of frustrated
killings, eight cases of illegal arrest and detention, five cases of
torture, one case of abduction and numerous cases of attacks on schools.

“The newly installed government of President Benigno Simeon Aquino
III promises a righteous path but his first year proved to be a path no
different from the previous government,” Jacqueline Ruiz, CRC executive
director, said during the presentation of the group’s submission to the
United Nations Human Rights Council for the Universal Periodic Review of
the Philippine government, Dec. 3.

Seven-year-old Sunshine Jabinez
was shot dead by a drunken soldier of the the 71st Infantry Battalion
of the Armed Forces in Pantukan, Compostella Valley. The suspect,
identified as Private First Class Baltazar M. Ramo, remains in active
service.

Recruitment, use of minors by state agents

The CRC also documented cases where children were used by soldiers as shields or guides in counterinsurgency operations.

On August 24, 2010, Mark (not his real name) , 17, and his three
cousins were taken by some elements of the 67th Infantry Battalion,
Philippine Army in Quarry Sopa, sitio Butigan, bgy. San Jose, Boston,
Davao Oriental and were under military custody for several days. On
August 29, 2010, the soldiers interrogated the victims, forcing them to
admit that they are members of the New People’s Army (NPA). The children
were told that once they admit it, they would be release immediately.
They were forced to sign a document they did not understand before they
were turned over to a local council member of Boston.

Children call for an end to human rights violations(Photo by Anne Marxze D. Umil / Bulatlat.com)

In brgy. Pong-on, San Agustin, Surigao del Sur, three children were
falsely branded as NPA guerrillas. On June 26, Reynaldo, 16, his brother
Robert, 10 and cousin Jefferson, 10 years, went to their farm to gather
coconut for copra. Not long after, Reynaldo heard gunshots. He went to
the direction of the gunfire and saw his father handcuffed. Two soldiers
of the 29th IBPA held him tightly.

Reynaldo and the two other children
were brought by the soldiers to bgy. Janipaan. The soldiers subjected
Reynaldo and Jefferson to interrogation before they were turned over to
the Sto. Nino Police in Surigao del Sur. Pictures of the children were
taken together with two soldiers. After a few days, the military issued a
statement to the media stating that they have captured three NPA child
soldiers after an “intense fire” in bgy. Janipaan..... MORE

Malacañang
had sought several exceptions to the mandatory disclosures of
information and documents to be covered by the proposed Freedom of
Information (FoI) Act among which included “national security” and the
President’s “deliberative process” for it to endorse the approval of the
bill that has been stalled in Congress for the past 15 years.

President
Aquino, who has made the passage of the FoI bill that seeks to require
government to divulge information imbued with public interest, among his
campaign promises supposedly as part of transparency in government, has
recently been balking at its passage citing dangers on national
security.

The Right to Know, Right Now Coalition, a group of
civil society and media organizations, said Sen. Gregorio Honasan,
chairman of the Senate committee on public information, had pledged
action to speed up the approval of the measure and that a committee
report will be submitted to plenary action by the first quarter of next
year..... MORE

12/11/2011
Following the execution of a
Filipino drug mule in China last Thursday, a lawmaker is urging the
Aquino administration to turn its attention to the 576 Filipinos who are
facing death, serving time or being tried for drug-related cases in 32
countries.

There should be no “China only” policy when it comes to
extending legal aid or seeking clemency for Filipinos jailed in foreign
lands, Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara said.

While China tops the list of countries harboring the most number of Filipinos jailed for drug possession — 207 by latest Department
of Foreign Affairs (DFA) count — the lawmaker said “369
similarly-situated Pinoys in 31 other nations need assistance.”.... MORE

12/11/2011
A four-seater cargo plane
yesterday crashed into a populated urban poor community in Paraaque
City, sparking a fire that killed 13 persons, including three children,
and left at least 20 injured, officials said.

The light aircraft
crashed at the back of F. Serrano Elementary School Annex 35, at Lower
Taiwan, Doa Soledad Extension in Barangay Don Bosco, Paraaque City,
causing a widespread fire that gutted about 50 houses around the crash
site, police said.

Both the pilot and co-pilot were killed in the
incident, while the other fatalities were thought to be residents of the
shanty town, Paraaque police Chief Insp. Enrique Sy said..... MORE

12/11/2011
As the country joins the
global celebration of the International Human Rights Day Saturday,
Malacaang announced the turnover by the military of declassified martial
law documents to the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) that would help
enlighten the people about what transpired during the dark years of
martial rule.

We have been informed that today, apart from being
Human Rights Day, will be the turnover of declassified Martial Law files
from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to the CHR, deputy
presidential spokesman Abigail Valte said in an interview aired over
government-run dzRB Radyo ng Bayan..... MORE

The
Supreme Court (SC) has upheld a claim by a former bank examiner of the
Central Bank of the Philippines (now the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas)
who is seeking compensation from the Government Service Insurance System
(GSIS) to refund more than P800,000 in expenses he incurred for a
kidney transplant.

The case reached the SC after Manuel Besitan’s
claim was turned down by the GSIS in a letter dated May 2, 2006,
prompting him to elevate the case to the Employees’ Compensation
Commission (ECC).The ECC for, its part, also ruled against Besitan.

Besitan
was employed by the Central Bank on Jan. 21, 1976 as a bank examiner.
Subsequently, he was promoted as Bank Officer II and eventually as Bank
Officer III..... MORE